Iranian dissidents: Over 40 hurt in camp bombing

A camp for Iranian dissidents near Baghdad’s international airport was shelled on Monday, wounding more than 40 residents, the Opposition People’s Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) said.

“According to reports from Camp Liberty, as of midnight Monday, more than 40 residents were wounded or injured in the missile attack on the camp,” Shahin Gobadi, a Paris-based PMOI spokesman, said in a statement.

The bombardment caused major destruction in the camp, including fires and deep craters, Ms Gobadi added.

The camp was targeted in a rocket attack in 2015 that killed at least 26 people.

Another PMOI spokesman, Shahriar Kia, said earlier that the group suspected “Iraqi groups affiliated with the Iranian” government were responsible for the shelling.

A witness who lives near the airport heard 20 to 30 explosions that a security source said was a bombardment targeting the secured perimeter of the airport where the camp is located. It was not clear if any of the airport’s facilities were hit. Mr Kia said more than 50 mortar rounds hit the camp.

The PMOI sided with former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during Iran’s war with Iraq in the 1980s but fell out of favour with Baghdad after he was toppled by a US-led invasion in 2003.

The PMOI was also accused of taking part in the brutal suppression of a 1991 Shia uprising against Saddam, making it widely reviled by members of the country’s Shia majority, which came to power after 2003.

The PMOI have since come under attack several times in Iraq. Their camp near the airport was previously shelled in October.